BV 



THE USE 

a? Religion 

EDWARD M.CROSS 




Class 

Book 

Gopig!it!V.\ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The Use of Religion 

Suggestions 

for 

Applying Christianity 




Edward IVf. Cross 



Webb Publishing Co. 
St. Paul, Minn. 



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Copyright 1921 

By 

EDWARD M. CROSS 



OCT 24 



©CU624960 



FOREWORD 

This book is an endeavor to give practical 
help in the use of religion. The suggestions 
set forth have been successfully tried in many 
cases of actual need. Conscientiously used 
they have transforming power; for they are 
out of the heart of the Gospel. 

Like everything worthy of attainment the 
rich promises of God cannot be had without 
effort. The rare privilege of communion with 
Him, with its attendant peace and power, is 
not for the careless and the indifferent. We 
must exchange a dissociated belief for a faith- 
ful practice of His all sufficient Presence. 

The papers are not argumentative. There 
is no time for words. Jesus Christ is the 
final authority in the things of the spirit 
life. We accept His guidance, well knowing 
that if at first His words and ways pass our 
understanding we shall soon grow unto a 
knowledge of the Truth as it is in Him. 



PREPARATION 



It is suggested that the reader study and 
master the simple and necessary principles 
enumerated in the following paragraphs. 

First — Relaxation . 

Long experience shows that physical re- 
laxation is a great aid to the reception of vital 
truths and influences. As long as the body 
is tense it seems that the mind and spirit 
attitude is aggressive and in a sense neutralizes 
the Divine before it comes into contact with 
the inner life. The Divine makes its habita- 
tion most naturally and easily in the mind 
and spirit where the state of receptivity is 
most nearly perfect. 

Seek quiet and seclusion. In the morning 
before you arise; at night before you sleep; 
several times during the day. Recline on a 
couch or bed or in a comfortable chair. 

Let go. Relax. Loose the hold of mus- 
cles and nerves. Think for a moment of 
something without bones or muscles — a jelly- 
fish, for instance. Raise your shoulders and 
let them drop freely. Lift your hands and 
let them fall as they will. So strive for per- 
fect relaxation throughout your body. 

Breathe deeply eight or ten times. And 
as you breathe, sense the inflowing of Divine 
peace and love. 

5 



There is no progress without relaxation. 
Second — Concentration 

Scattered thoughts and uncentered will 
dissipate power and close the avenues of 
approach to the soul. 

Shut out the world. Think of one thing — 
the one all desirable thing for the present. 
One step at a time must be the rule of your 
growing life in God. And that one step must 
deal with the Great Underlying Principle not 
with the lesser and partial manifestations of 
it. Waste no time with details — they con- 
fuse the soul in its struggle for the Truth. 

Determine. 

Focus every faculty upon the possession of 
the one thing. 

You are preparing to give truth an un- 
impeded entrance to your inner life. Stir in 
your heart a longing for God's presence and 
all that His presence means. Open wide the 
doors of your mind and soul for His blessing. 

There is no progress without concentration. 

Third — Contemplation . 

Before you can be you must see. 

Paint for your soul the picture of your 
desire. Visualize your ideal. God intended 
your imagination for use. 

Time must be spent in the contemplation 
of the ideal you would have master your life 
and the truth you desire to become. 



There is no progress without contemplation. 
Fourth — Affirmation 

If you are to succeed in your search for 
truth, serenity, and power, each step must be 
an affirmation. With respect to your faith 
in God and your communion with Him every 
doubt must be cast aside. 

In your struggle for life-mastery there can 
be no negations. The words if, maybe, per- 
haps, can't, but, and the like, must be banished 
from your thought and language. The whole 
universe of truth is powerless to help you 
until you approach it with sympathy and 
intention. 

Truth is affirmative, not negative. 

There is no progress without affirmation. 

Study the foregoing carefully. Read it 
over often. Make each step clear to your 
own mind. Add anything out of your own 
reading and experience as a re-enforcement. 

At the close of each of the following chap- 
ters certain prayers are suggested with the 
hope that they may form a basis for those of 
your own composition. It is better to make 
and use your own. If it is difficult at first 

to form your petitions or to give full expres- 
sion to your inmost thoughts, time and effort 
will overcome that limitation and bring a 
rich blessing. 

Be as simple and natural as you can. 

Let your soul speak to God. 



"God is love; and he that dwelleth in love 
dwelleth in God and God in him." 

I John IV, 16. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 11 



GOD 

"He that cometh to God must believe that He 
is and that He is a rewarder of them that dili- 
gently Seek Him." Hebrews XI, 6. 

(Read Psalm CXXIX; Romans VIII; I St. John III) 



G 



OD IS. This is the great inescapable 
reality of life. 



God is our Father. This is the great 
discovery of all the ages. 

We are. This is the great Father-God- 
requiring fact of life. 

O the wonder of life! That we are! That 
we are at all! That we exist, man and woman, 
parents and children! That we move about 
through the duties and relationships of life! 
That we are conscious of our own unique 
entity! That we can think — and that among 
our thoughts can come the thought of God! 
That we can form and speak the word! Here 
are the transcendent evidences of the Infinite 
and of the Eternal! 

With what lowliness and humility, yet 
with what exaltation, do we come to the 
knowledge that in God we live and move and 
have our being! With what searchings of 
heart and soul do we at last discover that we 
are the expression of God, as He extends 
through us the Life and Love and Power that 
He is! 



12 THE USE OF RELIGION 

And with what horror must we learn that 
there is lodged with us the power to dissociate 
from its source the part of the Divine that 
each one of us is and to use it to thwart the 
purpose and to hurt the perfect expression of 
the life and love of God! 

There can be no perfect life, there can be 
no serenity or power, or self-mastery without 
the association of that which is of God with 
that which He is. 

So we unite ourselves with the source of 
our life. We live and move and have our being 
in the love and power and thought that are the 
universal manifestation of the presence of God . 
We draw nigh to Him and He to us until, 
without the slightest loss of our own identity, ou r 
wills yield to His will, our beings are bathed 
in His all-pervading presence and we become 
one with Him. 

So God ceases to be a distant one in whom 
we believe and becomes for us the life we live. 



Follow carefully the suggestions made 
under Relaxation and Concentration in the 
chapter on "Preparation." Then 

Contemplate 

Undertake to sense the presence of God. 
Use the faculty of intuition that He has given 
for this purpose. Lift your soul above the 
tawdry and the petty and the ignoble in life 
and attune it to the Infinite. Feel the being 
of God entering your life and occupying your 
body, which is His temple. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 13 

Know God as your mind when you think 
and will and experience any worthy emotion; 
think of Him as your power when you use 
your muscles; think of Him as your physical 
life in all its activities. Think of God as all 
that is worthy in you overcoming the un- 
worthy; as always present and understanding 
and helping unto certain victory in every 
conflict of life. Then 

Affirm 

God is my life and the soul of all my being. 

In Him my strength is as the strength of 
many. 

I no longer merely believe in God; I live 
Him. 

I give Him to men each hour of my walking 
with them and without ostentation. I lend 
fresh courage in the hard places of life and lift 
the burdens of world-weariness. 



O God, my heart is full of thankfulness and 
praise because Thou art and of gratitude for 
that Thou hast endowed me with power to know 
Thee and with such a consciousness of my own 
identity that I can have the joy of bringing 
myself into relationship with Thee. 

Dear Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast 
taught me of my divine childhood and that 
Thou hast come to make Thine abode in Thy 
temple. 

So, use me, dear Lord, and let my life be the 
avenue through which Thou revealest Thy 
love and power to my fellow men. Amen. 
Amen. 



"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, 
and forever ." 

Hebrews XIII, 8. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 17 



CHRIST 

"/ am the way, the truth, and the life; no man 
cometh to the Father but through me ." St. John xiv,6. 

(Read St. John I and Romans V) 

WE HAVE said in the foregoing chapter 
that the great discovery of all time is 
that of the Fatherhood of God. Be- 
cause this is so we must now give our thought 
to Him through whom the revelation of God's 
Fatherhood came and by whom the discovery 
was made possible. 

Not in any spirit of uncertainty, yet with 
all reverent hesitancy, do we approach Christ. 
We strive to know Him and to understand 
how best to relate our lives to His life. We 
endeavor through hearts and minds rightly 
directed, to enter sympathetically into the 
spirit of His thought and life, — to have His 
mind in all things. 

The worst His enemies have ever said of 
Christ is that He is the best man that ever lived. 
The just and true estimate of His life and per- 
son is to be found far in advance of this. The 
uniqueness of His personality, the sinlessness 
of His life, the permanency of His teaching, 
His perfect two-fold revelation of God's 
Fatherhood and of the character possibilities 
of humanity; all place Him as the leader and 
final authority of that new order of mankind 
whose work it is to establish the Kingdom of 
God on Earth. 



18 THE USE OF RELIGION 

The world can accept no half-revelation of 
the Father and the Father's will and purpose 
in life. Christ's word, because of the im- 
measurable spiritual and character superiority 
of His life and therefore of His perfect discern- 
ment of the truth, is final. We may listen to 
none who, with the presumption of faulty 
character and imperfect spirit, would distort 
His word and subordinate His authority to 
anyone or anything whatsoever. 

Christ Is Christianity. 

Christianity is not a philosophy, though 
it is the essence of true thinking. It is not a 
system of morality, though it is the acme of 
right living. But as is true of no other effort 
to express religion it sums itself up in a person 
and in acceptance of and loyalty to that person 
as 

The Saviour of our lives from sin and 

the Lord of our lives for service. 

I 

Christ is The Saviour of My Life From Sin. 

The need of a Saviour from sin, from 
bondage to it and the effects of it, is universal. 
So Christ taught and for this He lived. Sin 
will never be vanquished by a denial of its 
existence or by a refusal to recognize it 
in our own lives. For, even though we 
have found well sounding words with which 
to excuse it, or have blinded ourselves, through 
egotism and falsehood, to its presence within 
us, it none the less destroys our souls and 
separates us from God. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 19 

Then, realize Christ as your Saviour. 

Follow carefully the instructions for relaxa- 
tion and concentration in the first chapter. 

Contemplate 

Think of Christ and His life work of redemp- 
tion; of His forgiving those who came to Him 
seeking forgiveness; of His frequent attribut- 
ing of sickness and impotency and soul atrophy 
to sin, and of His willingness and power to 
release all from bondage to it. 

Picture Christ on Calvary, suffering for 
our sins, redeeming us by His pains, His arms 
stretched out in all-including invitation and 
infinite love. Then 

Affirm 

Christ is the Saviour of my life from Sin. 

His love constrains me and makes me de- 
spise the wrong and desire the right. Through 
the power of His righteousness and of His 
strength I am free from the bondage to sin 
and am obedient to the law of His love and 
holiness. 

So am I crucified with Christ in His 
death and born to a new life of righteousness 
through His resurrection. I am no longer 
petty. Hatred and jealousy have gone from 
my soul. I think no evil. My mind is pure 
and I radiate strength because I have brought 
my body into subjection and am one with the 
spirit and purpose of Christ. 



20 THE USE OF RELIGION 

II 

Christ Is The Lord of My Life For Service 

Service is belief in action. 

It is the kingdom of God extending. 

It is the saved soul seeking outlet for the 
spirit of Christ. 

There is no salvation without service. 

Service saves. It directs energies and 
talents into wholesome ways and sanctifies 
them through contact with the work of the 
Kingdom of God. 

Follow carefully the instructions for relaxa- 
tion and concentration in the first chapter. 

Contemplate 

Think of Jesus as He lived His life of serv- 
ice; as He went about doing good. 

Listen as He says: 

"I am come not to be ministered unto but 
to minister." 

"I am come that they may have life and 
that they may have it more abundantly." 

Picture Jesus as He healed the sick, com- 
forted the sorrowing, fed the hungry, and 
brought new hope" into the world of darkness 
and despair. Then 



THE USE OF RELIGION 21 

Affirm 

I am the servant of the Lord. 

He is the master of my life. 

To Him I yield my heart's devotion and 
the worship of my soul. 

I labour in His name and for His sake and 
withhold nothing from His service! 



Dear Lord Jesus, Saviour of the world and 
Redeemer of my soul, I come to Thee and 
beseech Thy forgiveness of my every sin and 
ask Thy saving grace that my every power may 
be sanctified and made whole for Thy use. 
Grant that no thought or word or deed of mine 
may hurt Thy kingdom's life and growth and 
that every opportunity to do good may find 
me fit for service to my fellow men. Give un- 
to me the boon of a great soul that no little 
thing disturb me and of clear sight that no 
darkness be absolute. Let me glorify Thy 
name by all I am and do and come at last into 
Thine own presence with my hands clean and 
my heart unafraid. So grant my prayer and 
forgive its imperfections, for Thine own dear 
sake, My Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. 
Amen. Amen. 



"God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but 
of power and of love and of a sound mind." 

II Timothy I ; 7 



THE USE OF RELIGION 25 



POWER 

"Ye shall receive power when that the Holy 

Spirit is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses 

unto me to the uttermost parts of the Earth" 

Acts J, 8. 



M 



(Read Acts II; Ephesians III; VI) 

EDIOCRITY and inefficiency are th< 
product of sin and ignorance. 



Impotency of life is inexcusable. 

The average individual is an example of a 
perfect machine with no capacity to generate 
its own power and without connection with 
a power-generating center. We are as loco- 
motives without fire or steam and with the 
ability to do nothing but stand still or run 
down hill. We are as arid plains and without 
the intelligence or the inclination to draw from 
the earth or to bring down from the mountain 
tops the water by which our own latent 
possibilities may be developed and brought to 
fruitage. 

We are living lives separated from the 
source of life; trying to be energetic without 
the possession of the true power; and endeavor- 
ing to manifest goodness apart from God. 

Such is the situation. 

Inefficiency and mediocrity are the result. 



26 THE USE OF RELIGION 

The triumphant life is impossible without 
God. 

Without doubt there are within each of us 
reservoirs of power that we have never tapped, 
of power that we have never dreamed. These 
we must learn to use; for the lame walk and 
the dumb speak when the flood gates of divine 
energy are opened. It means work in the 
building up of new centers of control; it means 
labor in the redirection of energies from old 
habits through new avenues of expression and 
use. 

And it means the multiplication of our 
feeble powers by infinity when we call them by 
the name of God and make our minds and 
souls the stream-bed through which flows to 
our every need, for mastery in every struggle 
and for efficiency in every service to man, 
that all-conquering and inexhaustible power 
which is God. 

God has not left us powerless, nor with- 
out assurance of victory. We have not been 
set adrift on the stormy sea of life without 
pilot and compass. With all the threatening 
weaknesses of the flesh and the seeming 
strength of opposing forces we can still be 
supreme. "If God be for us who can be 
against us?" God and one are a majority. 

Now, having followed the general instruc- 
tions regarding 

Relaxation and 
Concentration, 
Contemplate — 



THE USE OF RELIGION 27 

Think of the power of God as sustaining 
all life, as being everywhere present, as enter- 
ing in endless stream into your own willing 
being. 

Picture Peter and John, who, through the 
power of God healed the lame man at the 
"Beautiful Gate" of the Temple. Picture 
these miracle workers who were but simple 
and easy going fishermen until they followed 
Christ, and so relating their lives to the inex- 
haustible source of all power, became world- 
benefactors. 

Affirm 

Impotency has gone from my life. 

Commonplaceness and inefficiency are far 
from me. 

The fulness of God's strength is flowing 
into my soul and body. 

His destiny and purpose for me are being 
realized. 

I radiate divine energy and men take 
knowledge of me that I have been with God. 



O Spirit of the Everlasting, I yield myself to 
Thee. My soul is open and I receive Thee into 
myself so that what Thou art in love and truth 
and power I do more and more become. I 
know Thy presence in my life expelling sin 
and overcoming weakness so that as I walk 
with Thee I feel the uplift of Thy strength, the 
certain presence of Thy love, and the guidance 
of Thy truth. For these and all Thy gifts 
of peace and holiness I give my heart's 
full gratitude and consecrate myself to serv- 
ice for my Master's sake, Lord Jesus, Saviour 
of my life and Lord of all my thoughts and 
words and deeds. Amen. 



"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto 
you ; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let 
not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" 

John XIV, 27. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 31 



PEACE 

"Be still and know that I am God." 

Psalm XLVI, 10. 
(Read Psalms IV; XXIII: St. John XVI) 

THE life in communion with God is a life 
of peace. For the child of God there 
is a quiet place in every storm and tur- 
moil of life. In the midst of worldly minds and 
material things the true sons and daughters 
of God are humbly and serenely superior. 

They possess their souls. 

Yet the peace of God is not the quiet of 
seclusion but the sure confidence of the soul 
in the midst of the activities of life. 

Perfect peace is that which clears the mind 
of every apprehension and distraction for clear 
thinking and effective living. 

The soul at peace with God carries an at- 
mosphere of composure and radiates a tran- 
quility which subdues all clamor and puts fear 
to flight. 

The peace of God is the rest in sleep; it is 
the calm in repose; it is the dispassionate in 
judgment; it is the imperturbable in the rela- 
tionships of life; it is the victory in honorable 
defeat. 



32 THE USE OF RELIGION 

Observe the suggestions respecting relaxa- 
tion and concentration, then 

Contemplate 

Remember Jesus as He stood in the ship 
on the stormy waters of Galilee rebuking the 
wind and commanding the Sea, "Peace, Be 
Still " Listen to the wind as it dies away into 
the soft, soothing zephyr and picture the sea 
as the threatening waves subside and the 
broad, smooth, still water, quiet to its utmost 
depth, restores confidence to those who were 
fearful — needlessly. 

Carve upon your mind that picture of 
Christ; cling to it with your soul. It is the 
promise of your own triumph over the trou- 
bled waves and the adverse winds of life. In 
Him find yourself revealed. 

As you face the stormy seas of life and are 
buffeted by its tempests such is the power of 
your life in God, such the power of your 
"Peace Be Still:' 

Affirm 

My life is hid with Christ in God. 

My mind is quiet within me and my soul 
is sure. 

Henceforth every turmoil shall find me 
still, and every distracting thing shall find me 
self-possessed. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 33 

Into my daily tasks I bring God's peace 
and as I move among my fellow men I shall 
bless them with the quietness of my inner self. 
Through Him that overcometh all I am free. 
The bonds that made me servant to the noise 
and ills of men are broken. Henceforth I am 
the messenger of Peace. 



Heavenly Father, I cannot speak Thy name 
and be petty ; I cannot call myself Thy child and 
sow discord. For when I am faithful Thou 
dost guide me in all my ways and keep me 
clear in mind and spirit. 

Thou hast promised to those that love Thee 
and seek to do Thy will the peace which 
passeth understanding. May I grow each day 
to love Thee more and to do Thy will better. 
So let Thy peace be mine as Thy love enlargeth 
my soul and Thy mercy covereth my faults, 
for Jesus' sake. Amen. 



"Now is come salvation and strength and the 
kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ" 

Revelation XII, 10 



THE USE OF RELIGION 37 



HEALTH 

"Beloved, I pray that in all things thou may est 
prosper and be in health, even as thy soul pros- 
pered" III, John 2. 



T 



(Read Psalm LXXXIV; St Luke VII) 



HE agencies for the establishment and 
maintenance of health are: physical, men- 
tal and spiritual. 



Physical 

Our physical selves are real. It is futile 
to undertake escape from the problems 
of life by the declaration of a falsehood. 
We are freed from bondage to the material 
not by a denial of the existence of it but by the 
transformation and transfiguration of it. The 
function of the spiritual is the redemption of 
the material from slavery to sin and disease 
unto the glorification of God. This is the 
revelation of the Gospel. And it was the life 
work of Jesus who never treated the physical 
as a delusion or disease as unreal, but who 
healed diseases and, by precept and example, 
taught the consecration of the body to the 
service of God. 



38 THE USE OF RELIGION 

In the effort to heal the ills of men and to 
minister to their physical needs God uses 
human agents. It is part of the divine plan 
to elevate and immortalize men by setting 
them to the task of saving men. Where there 
is honest and intelligent effort to relieve suffer- 
ing and to improve the physical conditions of 
life there God is. To say less is blasphemy! 

Therefore in seeking health and endeavor- 
ing to cultivate a body more nearly fitted for 
God's occupancy, we must use such means as 
He has provided. 

Hygienic laws must be obeyed. 

Regular habits of life; wholesome food at 
proper intervals; plenty of water, fresh air and 
sunshine; appointed hours for rest religiously 
kept; a reasonable amount of exercise; clean 
surroundings and decent associates; this pre- 
scription will prevent most of the ills and heal 
half the diseases of humanity. 

In addition to this when special need arises, 
consult an intelligent and honorable physician. 

Mental 

Within certain indefinable but most ex- 
tended bounds the mind is master. Conscious- 
ly or unconsciously it controls the life and 
makes for good or ill, health or sickness, life 
or death. Disease has killed its thousands 
but fear its tens of thousands. The mental 
attitude or belief may either create or accent- 
uate infirmity; or it may either cure or miti- 
gate it. Disease reigns supreme only when 



THE USE OF RELIGION 39 

the mind is held in bondage by the body. The 
function of the mind is to discern the truth 
and the right and to direct the physical self 
into the way of normal and wholesome expres- 
sion. With the morally and physically ill the 
mind has degenerated to the place where it is 
simply a center for favorable reaction to the 
stimulus that carries the body along the line 
of least resistance. Yet the emotions, the 
reason and the will are designed to be the 
supreme and selective faculties by which what 
is not good for the body is denied and what is 
desirable for it is required. So the chief func- 
tion of the mind in physical and moral disease 
is to counter-suggest. 

To think a condition the opposite to that 
which it is the purpose to overcome. To 
desire, to think, to will, health and strength; 
to send messages of well-being throughout the 
body. For every thought of weakness to 
create two thoughts of power, for every sensa- 
tion of pain to determine normality of organ 
activity and nerve function; thus to keep the 
mind superior to the body and to have the 
greater to master not serve the lesser. 

Spiritual 

To such extent as there has been failure to 
overcome disease and impotency it has been 
due in large measure to the failure to recognize 
the fact that man is mental and spiritual as 
well as physical. Treatment has been one- 
sided instead of three-fold. For this reason 
much time and energy has been wasted in 



40 THE USE OF RELIGION 

treating effects rather than causes. It is but 
natural that many ailments purely mental or 
spiritual in their origin should manifest them- 
selves in nerve and organ derangements. The 
object is to treat the cause. Surely it is 
impossible to know real prosperity and true 
health save as the soul, the spiritual self, 
prospers! 

We cannot think of God as infirm. Jesus, 
we know, despite the buffetings and scourgings 
both of soul and body that were the common 
experience of His life, had a reserve power with 
which He might have smitten His enemies. 
The real, the true, the inexhaustible force 
that makes for health is spiritual, that is, 
God. The more closely we conform to His 
laws; the more faithful our communion with 
Him; the more nearly normal, wholesome, and 
healthful we will be, in body, mind and spirit. 

So must we learn to use all the healing 
forces of life. To leave any stone unturned, 
any force unused, that is sin. To use the 
means that God has provided without the 
recognition of God as the Provider, that is to 
ignore the vital, curative part. Separation 
from God is impotency for anything and 
everything. 

Now, having observed the general direc- 
tions for relaxation and concentration, 

Contemplate 

Health and strength. Think of God as 
the God of health and strength; as desiring 
for His children perfection of physical life- 
expression. Sense the well-being that flows 
from accord with the laws of God and from 
uninterrupted communion with His spirit. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 41 

Picture Jesus, the Great Physician, reach- 
ing to you with all compassion and healing 
power, touching your weakness back to 
strength and your infirmities to health. Feel 
His hand as it rests upon your head in bene- 
faction and hear His voice as He says, "Be 
thou whole." 

Affirm 

I am whole. Health and strength are 
mine. 

All the directing and commanding power 
of mind and the limitless resources of the 
spiritual are working unto the end of my well- 
being. 

I open my life to their influence, I obey the 
law of righteousness, I attune my whole life 
to the being and purpose of God. 

I am free from bondage to my body. 
Through the force of mind and spirit, used 
consciously as the manifest presence and power 
of God, I am transfiguring my physical self 
and presenting a renewed and obedient body 
for His service. 



O Thou God Eternal, Creator and Sustainer 
of all good life, without whom nothing is 
strong, nothing is holy, and without whose 
abiding presence there can be neither whole- 
someness nor effectiveness of life, be Thou my 
strength and holiness and do Thou through 
Thine abiding presence sustain me. 

Grant me grace not to fret under the bur- 
dens of life but rather to bear them with the 
ease of a sufficient faith. Keep me from being 
selfish about my ills so that I neither hinder 
recovery nor prevent Thy companionship on 
any stony path that may be my lot. 

Make me conscious of Thine in-flowing love 
overcoming weakness and casting out fear and 
do Thou fill me with such soundness of body, 
mind and spirit as may fit me for Thy use and 
service. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. 
Amen. 



"7/ ye abide in me and my words abide in 
you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done 
unto you." 

John XV, 7. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 45 



PRAYER 

"Praying always with all pray er and supplica- 
tion in the Spirit and watching there unto with all 
perseverance." Ephesians vi, 18. 

(Read Psalm CXLV; St. Matt.VI ; St. John XVII) 

PRAYER is communion between God and 
man. It is the language of the spirit 
life. It need not be spoken, but may 
simply be thought and felt, though the spoken 
thought lends itself to greater definiteness and 
helps to clarify the soul atmosphere. 

Many there are who do not pray because 
they feel no need; others have ceased 
to pray because it seems fruitless. The 
former are suffering from soul atrophy, the 
latter from a misconception of the purpose of 
prayer. 

The object of prayer is the establishment 
of right relationship with God; it is impossible 
that there be right relationship without it. 
The greatest privilege of life, and indeed, the 
end of it, is communion with God. Because 
it emphasizes our oneness with Him and 
because through it we learn of His will as well 
as partake more fully, and more consciously, 
of His nature, prayer is the most important 
means to this end. 



46 THE USE OF RELIGION 

If you will turn to the XXXII chapter of 
Genesis, 24th to 27th verses, you will find there 
illustrated the three laws of prayer. 

First, is the law of the struggle. 

The Genesis account tells us that Jacob 
struggled with the angel, the night through. 

The greatest blessings of life are not be to 
had without effort. The blessing of blessings 
is not for the indifferent and the lethargic. 
And the chief reason for this is that without 
the effort and the struggle we would not know 
what the blessing is as to its value or as to its 
source. The struggle is required because it 
develops the capacity to receive and the 
power to retain. The pearl of great price has 
been scorned and trampled by many to whom 
its real significance and value have been mean- 
ingless. God does not give the blessing of 
communion with Him to everybody — because 
He cannot. There are pre-requirements that 
man must fulfill. 

Jesus can knock at the door but He cannot 
open it. The lock is on the man-ward not the 
God-ward side. 

Second, the law of price. 

The account in Genesis again tells us that 
the angel touched Jacob in the thigh and thus 
crippled him for life. Though what is received 
is out of all proportion to what is given, some 
price must be paid. To give of time, of sub- 
stance, of energy, in order to clear the way of 
approach to God, and to have the right to 
ask as well as the capacity to receive and the 
power to retain, — this is the law of the price- 



THE USE OF RELIGION 47 

And it is required in order that the source 
of the gift may not be forgotten. All his life 
through, as Jacob limped about the duties and 
undertook the responsibilities of it, as he 
enjoyed to the full all the abundant blessings 
of it, he must have that remembrance of the 
struggle with the angel, of the source of his 
blessing, and of the purpose for which it was 
given. 

Third, the law of the petition. 

As a reward for that night-long struggle 
Jacob asked no material thing; neither riches, 
nor power, nor fame. He said, "I will not let 
Thee go except Thou bless me." He sought 
the blessing of God upon his life. And that 
blessing changed Jacob's character. "Thy 
name shall be called no more Jacob, but 
Israel." 

The great keystone petition of all prayer 
is this, "Thy will be done." The intent of 
prayer is not to have God do our wills but to 
have us do His will. It is to work the trans- 
formation of our being, not to add to our com- 
fort or our success in any material way. It 
is to empower us for service in His name, not 
to work some petty, selfish end that can but 
hinder the coming of His Kingdom. 

So in all prayer we must remember the 
law of the struggle, the law of the price, and the 
law of the petition. 

Now, after having observed the general 
suggestions regarding relaxation and concentra- 
tion 



48 THE USE OF RELIGION 

Contemplate 

Jesus in the "High Priestly" prayer (St. 
John XVII) in which He reiterates over and 
over the fact of His oneness with God and 
looks at and struggles to solve the problems of 
life from the Divine, not the human, view- 
point. 

Picture Jesus in Gethsemane as He yields 
himself, entire, to the will and purpose of God 
for His life. And on the cross as He prefaces 
His opening and closing petitions with that 
one word, all unifying and all spirit-hunger 
satisfying — "Father." 

Affirm 

I commune with God. 

I feel the oneness of my soul with Him. 

I know new life. I am no longer Jacob, 
the human, but Israel, the divine. The old 
has passed away; behold, all things are new. 
I no longer burden God with selfish supplica- 
tion, but am become His helper as I see things 
more His way and strive to do His will. 



God, Thou Wrestler with the souls of men, 
I come full-spent and ask Thy blessing; the 
blessing of the life of spirit-touch with Thee; 
that as I delve into the chaos of this world and 
bring the knowledge of Thy saving grace to 
men, I may never be apart from Thee. 

1 thank Thee that my life is prayer; each 
footstep made, my hands outstretched, each 
fellowman-embracing thought of love, all, all 
are prayer; and prayer is love of Thee and 
Thine own love of me, communion's sweet 
repose, together with the working of Thy will. 
Amen, for Jesus' sake, Amen. 



" He hath showed thee, man, what is good; 
and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do 
justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with 
thyGodr 



Micah VI, 8. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 51 



REPENTANCE 

"Create in me a clean he 'art , God and renew 
a right spirit within me." Psalm Li, 10. 



T 



(Read Psalm LI; Luke XV; I, St. John II) 

HERE is one thing we cannot live with- 
out. 

With it all else may be endured. 

Poverty, sickness, war's carnage, disap- 
pointed expectations, blasted hopes; all, pro- 
vided self respect is kept. 

Self respect is indispensable to that equa- 
nimity which is the enemy of confusion. 

Happy and invulnerable is the soul that is 
free from self accusation, that has confidence 
in the integrity of its own motives. Such a 
soul "borrows omnipotence from God" and 
finds itself undismayed by any tribulations or 
disappointments of life. It is not shaken by 
what it sees of evil, nor dismayed by its in- 
ability to satisfy its craving for a rational 
order in which righteousness and mercy prevail. 

Self respect keeps the holy places of life 
invulnerable. It clothes its environment with 
wholesomeness and beauty. It radiates 
strength. It establishes confidence in the lives 
of the fallen. It is a tangible and infallible 
source of inspiration to every seeker of the 
truth. 



52 THE USE OF RELIGION 

It reveals God to man as to itself, for it 
knows that divine contentment which cannot 
be without God. 

It is the habit of self-respect not to vaunt 
itself but to wrap itself about with the humil- 
ity the sophisticated scorn. It is not an 
eloquent preacher, save in the potent touch it 
has with kindred souls and those looking for 
the rehabilitation of their wrecked lives. 

And finally it has long since learned the 
fallacy of that dependence upon the outward 
things which so many of the benighted use to 
detract attention from their emptiness. 

Self-respect is the consciousness of soul 
soundness. 

What its incalculable value is may best be 
imagined through the consideration of the 
magnitude of the task of restoration, once 
self-respect is lost. 

But what if one have lost one's self-respect ? 

If self-respect makes bearable anything in 
the way of adversity that life may have to 
offer, how tragic the plight of him who has no 
such citadel to which to flee in time of storm 
and stress! 

The plight is common, though not com- 
monly recognized. 

This, because there are so many substitutes 
for self-respect. 

Money, position, fine clothes, have post- 
poned the day of reckoning. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 53 

The conventionalities of life have made a 
fine hiding place for many a sinner. 

But we are speaking now of the honest 
soul that has learned to suffer the agony which 
comes when self-respect goes. 

What has life to offer him ? 

We answer, nothing. 

But Christ has! 

There is a word in the Christian dictionary 
that means more than we are wont to think; 
that offers more than we have supposed. 

It is repentance. 

Not a glib confession of guilt. That con- 
fessions are so easily made by some manifests 
a conscience untrained in distinguishing the 
elemental matters bound up in all questions of 
right and wrong. 

Not a seasonal rehearsal with others of 
those common sins out of the confession of 
which false comfort is drawn, because for- 
sooth, what is so common can hardly be very 
wicked. 

But, as the original Greek of the word 
means, a change of mind, a fronting of the 
whole life in a new direction. A new point of 
view. A determination to constructiveness. 

Repentance is a revulsion against waste; 
it is a disgust with emptiness; it is a horror 
over the possibilities of evil; it is dismay born 
of the realization of guilt. 



54 THE USE OF RELIGION 

And it is a passionate yet deliberate turn- 
ing of the back upon that respect-destroying 
life of yesterday and an eager, joyous, firm 
grasping, embracing, of the life that Christ 
offers. 

When that hour comes we have begun to 
lay anew the foundation for self-respecting 
life; upon which foundation may be built still, 
do we but persevere, a life, true, approved of 
God and of service to man. 

Follow the directions regarding relaxation 
and concentration. 

Contemplate 

The truths in the parable of the Prodigal 
Son. 

Think of the swine and husks as typifying 
the life of disobedience, of waste, of separation 
from God. 

Think of the hard upward road of return 
as indicative of the remorse and the determina- 
tion to righteousness that are the evidence of 
true repentance. 

Think of the father's welcoming arms, the 
feast of joy, as the guarantee of the perfect 
forgiveness of the sinner who sincerely seeks 
it. 

Affirm 

I abhor the things that pull me down and 
make me unworthy of God's love and man's 
friendship. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 55 

I am filled with disgust at the thought of a 
life wasted in disobedience to the commands of 
God. 

I long for the recreation of my self-respect 
that I may know the peace that passeth under- 
standing. 

And now I know that God is receiving me 
unto Himself for He has promised that he who 
confesses shall be forgiven. 

I feel myself loosed from the destructive 
thoughts and deeds of yesterday. 

The discord of my former ways has passed 
and I am surrounded by the divine harmony. 

I have come at last to myself. 

I have come to God. 

I am forgiven; I am cleansed; I hold up my 
head once more as the true child of God. 



Jesus, blessed Saviour, Thou hast borne the 
pain and burden of all our sins and yet is Thy 
mercy and compassion undiminished. With- 
out weariness Thou dost strive to turn us 
about and to show us the right. Thou 
knowest not the meaning of faltering purpose 
or questioning love and without stint Thou 
givest to sinners the comfort of Thy mercy and 
the new strength of Thy righteousness. 

O Lamb of God, Thou hast taught me to 
know sin as the thing that maketh men forget 
Thee and Thou hast shown me that good is 
the desire to do Thy will and to come unto the 
knowledge of Thy love. 

In Thy mercy Thou hast lifted me out of the 
treacherous places and stood me upon the 
firm ground. Thou hast brought me out of 
the valley of the shadow to the vision of the 
promised land. 

Thou callest unto me and I come. I reach 
out my hand for Thine and I find Thee waiting. 
I look up into Thy countenance and meet Thy 
ready glance, Lord Jesus, Saviour, Master, 
Word Incarnate, Friend. Amen. 



"They continued steadfastly in the Apostles 
doctrine and in fellowship and in breaking of 
bread and in prayers." 

Acts II, 42. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 59 



COMMUNION 

"He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my 
blood dwelleth in me and I in him" John VI, 56. 

(Read John VI; Hebrews X) 

THERE are four reasons why faithful 
attendance upon the Holy Communion 
is essential to the expression of the high- 
est Christian life. 

First, it is the command of Jesus that we 
observe the Sacrament. 

"This do," He said, "in remembrance of 
me." That He meant the regular celebration 
of the Communion is apparent from the under- 
standing and practice of the Apostles and the 
early Church. The observance of this Sacra- 
ment became the central feature of every 
gathering of the disciples of Christ. 

It is the one thing that Jesus has asked us 
to do with respect to His person itself. And 
it is the command of Him who is our authority 
in the things of the spirit life. Therefore, it is 
not for us to question, or to condition His 
command by any petty, personal opinion. 
Jesus stands in character and spiritual dis- 
cernment so far above the most genius-like of 
mortals that every instinct and longing of the 
soul must find in Him its object and satisfac- 
tion, its authority and ultimate court of appeal. 
To do what Jesus said to do, to obey Him; 
this is the foundation of the Christian life. 
The beauty and sweet reasonableness of 
magnificent spiritual structure most certainly 
follow. 



60 THE USE OF RELIGION 

Second, it is commanded as a memorial. 

We are so constituted that we must make 
use of every possible provision to keep the 
spiritual life foremost. It must be emphasized 
by us; for it will not press itself upon us and 
have the dominating place that it should have 
unless we use every facility within our reach 
to relate ourselves to the means of grace. 

We are aided in remembering friends and 
loved ones by photographs and objects of one 
sort and another with which we are surrounded. 
Why not use like methods to keep His memory 
alive in our hearts? For, when we attend the 
Holy Communion, our minds are taken back 
to the time of the institution of the Sacrament, 
to the day and occasion of His sacrifice for us. 
Again our memories are refreshed and we live 
over and over that period of His life fraught 
with such significance to ourselves. We follow 
Him step by step on the Calvary way and kneel 
before the Cross in contemplation of His 
infinite love and mercy. 

Third, it is the evidence of our unity in the 
Faith. 

We need to gather at the altar lest we for- 
get our unity with our fellowmen as well as 
our oneness with God. It is the place where 
all superficial differences vanish and the sons 
and daughters of God become unified in one 
great corporate act, in the worship of our 
common Lord and Saviour. 

We need to gather at the altar rail to 
manifest our unity to the world. It is the 
highest expression of Christian faith and life 



THE USE OF RELIGION 61 

and the one manifestation of belief and con- 
sistency for which the world has nothing but 
respect and before which it must stand in 
soul-aroused question and wonder. 

Fourth, it is the appointed means of com- 
munion with the living Christ. 

We worship not a dead hero but a living 
Lord and Saviour! 

The need of Christian mysticism is univer- 
sal; the day for it has come. Not only do we 
believe that many fortunate ones have seen 
and touched our Lord in the spirit, but we 
know that this gift is for all men who will try 
in truth and sincerity to learn of Him. Be- 
cause communion with God is the greatest 
blessing and true end of all life and because 
the communion of the body and blood of our 
Lord is the most important of the means 
appointed for that end, it is nothing less than 
sin to treat it with indifference and neglect. 

We observe the Sacrament of the Lord's 
supper because Jesus commands us; because 
it keeps His precious death and sacrifice for 
us alive in our hearts and minds; because it 
realizes for ourselves and manifests to others 
our unity in the faith; and because so we com- 
mune with the spirit of the living Christ. 

Now, having observed the directions re- 
specting relaxation and concentration, 

Contemplate 



62 THE USE OF RELIGION 

The scene of the institution of the Sacra- 
ment. Think of the bread and wine as the 
spiritual body and blood of Christ. Know 
that as you partake of the elements in the 
Holy Communion you are in very truth par- 
taking of Christ. Feel the inflowing of Christ's 
being, the fusing of your soul with Him and 
thus the obliteration of everything unworthy 
in your own life. 

Affirm 

I obey the command of Jesus. 

I keep alive within my mind and heart the 
memory of His passion and death. I think 
upon his wounds and sorrows borne for my 
sake. 

To the world I manifest the unity of my 
life with Him and His faithful people. 
I long to commune with Him. 

I look forward to the blessed privilege of 
the Sacrament He ordained as the surest 
means of preserving my oneness with His 
spirit. 



Dear Lord Jesus, Saviour and Master, 
teach me perfect obedience to Thy will and 
way and unreserved submission to Thy every 
commandment; for well my heart knoweth 
that Thou hast ordained Thy laws for my 
soul's good. May Thy life of sorrow and suf- 
fering not have been in vain for me and may 
the memory of Thy passion and death never 
forsake me. 

And as I obey Thy commands and seek to 
live Thy way, give me the blessing of Thy 
constant presence in my daily life that 
my soul may ever be conscious of its unity 
with Thee and that my every thought and 
word and deed may show forth to men Thy 
saving grace and the wisdom of Thy better 
way. Amen. 



"Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for 
I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find 
rest unto your souls." 

St. Matthew XI, 29 



THE USE OF RELIGION 65 



THE INNER LIFE 

"Man looketh on the outward appearance but 
the Lord looketh on the heart." I Samuel xvi, 7. 

(Read Psalm I ; St. Luke XI ; Ephesians IV; James III) 

TO BE rather than to seem, to labour for 
internal perfection rather than external 
effect, to have what I am eloquent 
rather than what I pretend to be clamor 
meaninglessly, to have no unworthy self giv- 
ing the lie to any goodly appearance, to be on 
such fair terms with myself as will, in the quiet 
and secluded times of life, make my own com- 
pany welcome to me, to be such friends with 
downrightness and straightforwardness that I 
can disarm hypocrisy and put double-minded- 
ness to flight; this must be my determina- 
tion would I live usefully and die honorably. 

The tendency of the demands of life is to 
make one live entirely on the outside of one- 
self, to persuade one to neglect that true cul- 
ture which is deeper far than a first class 
education or the acquisition of a manner that 
can carry off a situation with a measure of 
credit. 

The great emergencies are the real test of 
one's character, the crises of life search out the 
soul. Woe to the man who for the hour of trial 
has not laid by a store of the strength that 
comes from self-discovery and a knowledge of 
inner soundness. 



66 THE USE OF RELIGION 

Let us understand that the inner self is the 
real self. It is a realm that offers unmeasured 
possibilities of exploration and discovery. 

Eventually we will find that this inner self is 
a microcosm, containing an expression of 
infinite life and reflecting the destiny of 
supreme intention. 

For the sounding of the depths of this sub- 
concious life and for the release of its hidden 
secrets and powers there are two clear and 
unfailing laws. 

First, there is the law of simplicity . 

Simplicity is the great alchemy that creates 
the gold of unity from the base metals of 
diversity. 

God is the great One. To be complex is 
to be at enmity with Him. One may not 
without disaster live a divided life seeking 
God with one part and disobeying His laws 
with the other. 

Simplicity is the true greatness which 
casts aside all dissimulation and overcomes 
the anarchy of arrogance and conceit. Also 
it begets humility, that lantern to the feet of 
those who seek God. 

Another of the children of simplicity is 
orderliness. It is not to be expected that a 
disorderly life can know the truth. There is 
something well defined about the ways of a 
godly soul, an unassuming certainty which 
indicates that it travels in no strange land. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 67 

Simplicity brings unity, casting out all 
those evil spirits of distraction that would 
storm the citadel of self-possession. 

Second, there is the law of purity. 

One sees God through the heart not through 
the mind. 

Character is more necessary to the dis- 
cernment of truth than is intelligence. 

It is sin, not ignorance, that keeps us in the 
dark. 

He who thinks to know the God of Holi- 
ness without himself striving most diligently 
to be free from reproach before God and man 
is most grossly deceived. 

Unqualifiedly the greatest contributor to 
spiritual insight and the brightest light of 
revelation in the search for God is a clean 
heart. 

Now, having observed the rules regarding 
relaxation and concentration, 

Contemplate 

The part of the life of Jesus which was 
consistently devoted to the solitude that made 
self-understanding possible. 

The frequency with which He withdrew 
from the world the better to know Himself 
and learn the Father's will. 



68 THE USE OF RELIGION 

Picture Christ alone in the wilderness as 
He searched the profound depths of His 
being; and in Gethsemane during the hour of 
supreme decision as He brought His will 
into utter subjection to the purpose of God. 

Know Christ as He stood before Pilate 
unperturbed because He was sure of Himself. 

Think of Him as He stood before the world 
rejected, yet of all the world that one alone 
who had entered into the heritage of the ever- 
lasting Kingdom. 

Hear Him as He says "I am come that they 
may have life and that they may have it more 
abundantly." 

Affirm 

I am. 

I am one, not many. 

My life once at war with itself now finds 
peace in unity. 

I know the harmony of a single purpose. 

I discover within myself depths that ring 
true. 

Out of turmoil of meager life I have come 
into the land of plenty. 

I am no longer afraid, because I am of 
clean conscience and have passed through the 
mists of compromise and deception to the 
clear light of truth and fidelity. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 69 



Dear Lord Jesus, upon Thy countenance is the 
light of eternity and within Thine eyes gleam- 
eth the everlasting fire. Thou lookest into life 
and Thou seest beyond it. Thou art per- 
plexed by no cross purposes and art turned 
aside by no clamoring. Thou knowest what 
it is to be and hast found peace. 

O how firm Thou art and yet how kind: 
How Thou dost put the fevered ages to shame 
with Thine even steps: How patiently Thou 
waitest for the time of my disillusionment 
that I may turn to Thee and find the spirit! 

How Thou rebukest me with Thy clear brow 
and how Thou searchest me out with Thine 
unwavering eye! If I have been a stranger to 
Thee it is because Thou treadest only the path 
that is straight. Fain would I have kept 
friends with Thee while I made much of those 
who smile foolishly upon Thy gentleness, until 
I was at last set right by Thy mercy. 

Now Thou hast revealed me unto myself for 
Thou has been my mirror. And in the revela- 
tion Thou hast been graciously pleased not 
only to show that part which is ugly in its 
difference from Thee but as well that part 
which may be beautiful in its likeness to Thee. 

Then, as Thou labourest may I lend a hand 
without awkwardness and as Thou goest for- 
ward may I company with Thee without cavil ; 
for Thy name and love's sake. Amen. 



"Go ye into all the world." 

St. Mark XVI, 15. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 73 



INFLUENCE 

"They took knowledge of them that they had 
been with Jesus." Acts iv, u. 

(Read Acts III; St. John XV) 

THE distinctive characteristic of Chris- 
tianity is this, that it requires a relation- 
ship with man as well as with God. 
The vision of the redeemed world given us by 
Christ waits for its realization upon the per- 
fection of this relationship. 

Not only am I a child of God, but we are 
children of God. 

In the divine family God's concern is for 
all the children. He alone has the mark of the 
Father's love who manifests the brother's or 
the sister's heart. 

But, independent of what we will there is 
a certain reaching out of what we are. The 
relationships exist whether we will or no. 

They exist for good or ill. 

All self-deception to the contrary there is 
no isolation of the real self from life. Do we 
place a guard upon our lips and withdraw our- 
selves from contact with men there is never- 
theless a something embracing him and draw- 
ing him to our own truth or falsehood. 



74 THE USE OF RELIGION 

This is none the less a fact because the 
ways of it are past finding out. 

Influence as we mean it is the power and 
love of God put to constructive use in every 
activity of body, mind and spirit. Influence 
is this power and love made effective through 
relationships. 

Life usefulness is limited by the ability to 
comprehend life-purpose and direction, by the 
capacity for love of one's fellowman, and by 
the measure of consistency in manifesting 
Christ to the world through character. 

Also it waits upon the use of that greater 
self with which God has endowed us and 
which we have been at such slight pains to 
discover and develop. 

For manifestly, as the children of God, we 
are potentially great and fine, and need only 
the acknowledgment of our heritage to make 
our life expansive and upbuilding, contribut- 
ing to the world the pure gold of honor and 
right thinking in the place of the dross of its 
lust and deceit. 

We have learned of avenues of service of 
which the past has revealed us little. The 
power of the rightly directed mind over the 
infirmities of the body; the power of mind and 
spirit over mind and spirit; the power of the 
soul to reach beyond the limitations of the 
flesh, space and time and to affect for good or 
ill whatever it seeks to touch and penetrate. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 75 

The vision of our day is the vision of the 
Universal. We are coming to think and speak 
in terms of the everywhere. Our conception 
of life has become more beautiful and dignified 
with the consciousness that there is nothing 
in time and space or transcending them by 
which we are not touched and conditioned, and 
that there is nothing we have not the power to 
touch and condition if we will. 

Dissociation from the Universal is death. 

Perfect relationship to it is life eternal. 

Now, after having followed the directions 
given under relaxation and concentration, 

Contemplate 

Think of Peter and John at the Beautiful 
Gate of the Temple. 

Picture the Master of men as with that 
spirit making for wholeness He healed at a 
distance the servant of the centurion. 

Hear him as he says "Go ye into all the 
world." 

Affirm 

I am more than human; I am divine. 

I am more than flesh; I am mind and spirit. 

I am the master not the slave of body, 
time and place. 

With my soul I seek to touch and under- 
stand the whole of which I am a part. 



76 THE USE OF RELIGION 

I reach out. to those I love and those I 
ought to love wherever they may be. I strive 
to help and sustain them with my wholesome 
thinking and my vital loving. 

And so do I live within myself and in 
conscious touch with Christ, my Master, that 
those with whom I walk and labour in life 
take knowledge of me that I have been with 
Him. 



O Thou infinite and all comprehending 
Spirit of life and light, I seek Thy illumina- 
tion for the dark places of my soul that there 
may be revealed unto me what I know not of 
myself and destiny. 

Teach me, O God, to be fearful of waste and 
error; for I would fulfill Thy purpose for my 
life and come unashamed to the end of my 
days. 

May that with which Thou hast endowed me 
be used to the full; may what I am in Thee be 
so expressed as to serve the largest number 
and do the greatest good; and may I constantly 
grow in such unselfish ways as may bring the 
consciousness of my oneness with humanity 
and with Thee. 

All which I pray for Jesus' sake. Amen. 



"Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on 
eternal life" 

I Timothy VI, 12. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 79 



FAITH 

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the 
evidence of things not seen." Hebrews xi, I. 

(Read Hebrews XI; I Timothy IV) 

FAITH is no child's plaything, nor cow- 
ard's refuge. 

It is for the soldier of life not the non- 
combatant. 

It is a conviction to possess one. not an 
opinion to be held. 

It is at once the object of ridicule and the 
mover of mountains. 

Paradoxically it gives substance to the 
intangible and makes the impossible come true. 
Unto the mortal who says 'I cannot,' faith 
comes and the task is done. 

Faith has scaled insuperable mountains 
and sounded the depths of unfathomable 
seas. It has fought and won hopeless causes, 
redeemed lost souls and in a world dominated 
by materialism laid hold on the Infinite. 

Faith sees through the dark clouds to the 
sun, spans the gulf between flesh and spirit 
and overthrows the barriers between time 
and eternity. 



80 THE USE OF RELIGION 

Faith is the will to believe despite many 
apparently good reasons for not believing; it 
is a determination to loyalty though all the 
world turn infidel. 

It is this very will to believe that finally 
brings one to the point of vantage which 
justifies faith; for assuredly there is little in 
any sphere of life that can be grasped and 
understood without the sympathy of a willing 
approach. 

But faith is more than an acceptance of the 
undemonstrated. 

Faith is a faculty. 

It is a power of discernment. 

It is the eye of the soul. 

We have not been endowed with a yearn- 
ing for the Infinite and left without ability in 
due measure to gratify that yearning. Indeed 
it is our foretaste of the Infinite that has 
created the desire for it. 

This faculty must be cultivated; it must 
be developed by exercise. The very effort to 
penetrate the veil will eventually make it 
possible to do so. 

Trust then your spiritual sight and be not 
dismayed by earth-born clouds; for faith is 
the substance of things hoped for. 

Now having observed the general direc- 
tions for relaxation and concentration, 

Contemplate 



THE USE OF RELIGION 81 

The whole of life as borne upon the 
shoulders of faith. 

Realize that the great tasks and deeds of 
life have been performed by the men and 
women of greatest faith in the unseen. 

Remember the patriarchs of Israel and 
their abiding faith in the promises of God. 

Think of Paul who on the way to Damas- 
cus saw Christ, of John who on Patmos be- 
held him in glory, and of Stephen who in the 
hour of his martyrdom was blessed with the 
heavenly vision. 

Picture that which you would believe and 
be and reach constantly toward it. 

Affirm 

I know that God has made me in His 
image and after His likeness and that He has 
given me power to see beneath the surface to 
the heart and the spirit. 

In seeking Him I trust those instincts He 
has created in me. 

I refuse to be bound to earth and I will not 
be deceived into contentment by a satisfac- 
tion of the flesh. 

In my search for God I will not be turned 
into the bypaths that lead to altars self-seek- 
ing men have built. 

Though all the world deny yet will I 
affirm. 



82 THE USE OF RELIGION 



That faith is mine which overcomes the 
world for it perceives the universe of reality 
which is the source of all good life. 



God, that there are things I cannot under- 
stand is but the evidence of their infinity and 
that there are times of doubt reveals but mine 
own fault. 

1 would not assume that what I am unable to 
grasp cannot be nor yet that the whole of which 
I am a part is beyond my reach. Rather do I 
know that Thou hast not given me the long- 
ing to understand simply to torment it with 
impossibility but rather to satisfy it with in- 
creasing knowledge when it seeks worthily. 

May not be mine the part of the coward who 
fears the truth nor of the laggard unwill- 
ing to pay the price of it in labour and sincerity. 

If my steps on the path are slow may they 
be none the less sure, and while I strive on 
toward the goal where faith will be seeing and 
belief will be knowing, may I receive strength 
and inspiration from those on whose vigils has 
long since broken the eternal day of their 
faith's justification. Through Jesus Christ, 
our Lord. Amen. 



"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; 
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a 
light that shineth in a dark place until the day 
dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." 

II Peter I, 19. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 85 



HOPE 

"Blessed is the man who trusteth in the Lord 
and whose hope the Lord is." Jeremiah xvn, 7. 

(Read Psalms XXVII; LXII; I Peter I; Phillipians III) 



WITHOUT hope life would be unbearable. 
It is the looking forward to a better 
day that lightens the burdens of this. 

Each succeeding dawn brings its promise — 
even though the evening see no fulfillment. 
It is in the promise not in the fulfillment that 
we live; for we are not prone to linger over 
attainments. We turn from them to seek the 
realization of other longings. So are we con- 
stituted that we find little satisfaction in what 
we can hold. In climbing the mountains of 
life we get little comfort out of what is below 
us so long as there are ranges and peaks above. 

That discontent which we often count 
our sorest affliction is our greatest blessing. 
We are not created for happiness but for strife. 
Satisfaction is death. Life is longing and 
growth and pain — and then more longing. 

Longing, hope, faith, how closely these are 
related. 

Longing is hope militant. 

Faith is the backbone of visions. 



86 THE USE OF RELIGION 

If life is the sea and the soul a ship, then 
longing is the propeller, faith is the helm and 
hope is the star. 

Hope borrows always from the Golden 
Age, which is tomorrow not yesterday, and 
paints all life's dark clouds with rainbows of 
expectation. Castles are its dreams and men 
and women great and good its friends. 

Hope thrives on disappointment. 

Where flesh is weak hope is strong, and 
grim death finds it invulnerable. 

This thing, hope, came out of no earth- 
born cell, no animal yesterdays, but out of the 
tomorrow toward which it ever turns and 
which is eternity. 

Hope may falter. 

It never fails! 

Observe the suggestion regarding relaxa- 
tion and concentration 

Contemplate 

The wilderness life of the Children of 
Israel. Their longing, their hope for the Prom- 
ised Land. 

Think of those early Christians who in the 
midst of persecution with earnest expectation 
awaited the coming of Christ. 

Remember what numberless souls under 
conditions devoid of all semblance of promise, 
have striven on with faces directed toward a 
morrow that no persecutor could see. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 87 

Contemplate the light within the eyes of 
those who died with their goal ungained, a 
light that gave the lie to every earthly hin- 
drance and spoke of the final end truly seen 
and the way made clear. 

Affirm 

Hope and I are fast friends. 

There is nothing beyond the reach of God. 

Those problems that time cannot, eternity 
will solve. 

In God's good time the rough will be made 
smooth and the crooked straight. 

Over the hill is paradise. 

I will not falter. 

I do not fear for the outcome. 

At the foundation and at the center there is 
goodness and truth and beauty. 

Patiently and confidently I await their day. 



O God, Thou hast blessed me with the 
unquenchable thirst. Thou hast made me to 
reach out and to look up. Thou permittest me 
to sense infinity and to taste the sweetness of 
the ineffable. 

This hope that springeth eternally, surely it 
is of Thee; and that for which the craving 
consumeth me and which my earth-dimmed 
sight seeth distantly, surely this will some day 
reward my search with greater nearness. 

This expectation of triumphant good is not 
for naught else would I not abhor wickedness; 
this confidence in the better day is not a 
mockery else would I have no concern for the 
redemption of the present moment; and this 
hope for the millenium of Thine accepted 
love is no delusion else would mine own 
neglect bring no remorse. 

O do Thou strengthen me in unwavering 
hope and stablish me in abiding trust. Let 
no trial find me faithless and no hard place 
without the spirit to lift mine eyes. Above 
all save me from any hour that might possibly 
look on the black moment of a repudiated 
faith, and do Thou bring me at last to a 
sufficient measure of Thine own understand- 
ing love. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, 
Amen. 



"He that loveth not knoweth not God', for God 
is love" 

I St. John IV. 8. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 91 



LOVE 

"Though I bestozv all my goods to feed the 
poor, and though I give my body to be burned, 
and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." 

I Corinthians XIII, 3. 
(Read Romans XII; I Corinthians XIII; I St. John III; IV) 

PITY the loveless! 
No one else needs it. 

Whatever else one has, if he has not 
love, he is pitiable; but if he has nothing else 
and has love, he is enviable. 

Life's greatest masquerade is that of the 
unloving and the unloved; for the lack of no 
other possession does one strive so hard to 
conceal. 

Multitudes there are who seek satisfaction 
in something less than love — calling it greater 
— like popularity, or wealth, or art, or good 
works, or petty affairs of the heart, or lust; 
and their path through life is strewn with tell- 
tale, broken baubles while their hearts are 
gnawed by consciousness of the great failure. 

Love lingers but a brief space with small 
souls and quickly departs where there is no 
virtue. It withstands misery without com- 
plaint, but will not long company with vanity, 
envy and deceit, though they offer the luxury 
of palaces. 

Love is life. 



92 THE USE OF RELIGION 

Without love people do not live; they 
shrivel up and eke out an existence of self- 
pity. 

Conceivably one may live without faith 
and without hope, but not without love; yet 
love generates both faith and hope. 

Love is fire — and all true life is conflagra- 
tion. 

Love is ether — embracing space, bearing 
light on wings of incredible swiftness and in 
utter quiet. 

Love is radium — diffusing energy, penetrat- 
ing darkness. 

God is love. 

We do not say "love is God," but u God is 
Love." 

Herein lies the difference between simper- 
ing emotion and empowering passion. 

Where love is God it brings the curse of 
idolatry, being made in the image of the 
devotee. Its liberty is license, for there is no 
recognition of the law of self-restraint; its 
privileges are ways of degeneration, for it 
evades the exacting conditions of all worthi- 
ness. 

Where God is Love, it has been discovered 
that love is more than charity and mercy and 
throbbing heart, that, indeed it is as well 
justice and righteousness and sternness; that 
it is a chastening rod as well as enfolding arms; 
that it is three parts of renunciation to one of 
possession. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 93 

Love abides. 

Unnumbered centuries have been power- 
less to destroy it. 

Love is greatest. 

Without it faith is a skeleton and hope a 
mirage. 

Love is eternity come to dwell in time. 

Observe the rules regarding relaxation and 
concentration, 

Contemplate 

God's love as manifested in Jesus Christ, 
who is the throbbing heart of the divine 
passion for the souls of men. 

Think of love as consuming flame, burning 
away the dross of selfishness and the base 
metals of impurity. 

Think of love as infinite patience, justify- 
ing itself not by the conditions it may be able 
to impose but rather by those it is willing to 
bear. 

Think of love as renunciation, for it grows 
strong by what it surrenders not by what it 
acquires. 

Think of love as Jesus, arms out-stretched, 
upon the Cross. 

Remember that it was the unquenchable 
fire of His love that brought Him to Calvary; 
remember that there is no love worthy of the 
name that does not partake of the qualities 
revealed in His love for us. 



94 THE USE OF RELIGION 

Affirm 

God is love. 

Of Him I am the creature. 

Bitterness and envy, pettiness and strife, 
enemies of love, are becoming more strange to 
me each day. 

My soul is enlarged by the thought of the 
infinite passion. 

I grow steadily more capable of true love 
and more worthy to be truly loved. 

I satisfy this hunger to love and be loved 
by no pampering of character destroying 
appetites, but I give it light to live in and the 
clear air to breathe and I follow it utterly 
hope beyond hope. 



O Thou Infinite Lover, who art above all and 
through all and in all, O Thou who art romance 
and consuming passion, infinite patience and 
renunciation, how dearly Thou hast loved us, 
with what insistence hast Thou sought us, 
with what prices hast Thou bought us. 

Even so, Thou hast left us free to love whom 
and what we will for Thou wouldest not have 
us love Thee by constraint. Yet no man 
loveth till he loveth Thee and the first dawn- 
ing of love's meaning is not within his heart 
until he would love in Thy name. 

O Thou Timeless Lover, whom the infidelity 
of the ages cannot change and who art deceived 
by no false heart, do Thou kindle within me 
the fire of the love that never faileth. May it 
burn so strongly that the winds of adversity 
will but fan it to a higher flame and may it 
shine so brightly that the fires of unworthy 
affection will cease to allure. 

Save as I love Thee, all is chaos and discord; 
save as Thou art the desire of my soul do I 
dwell in the outer-darkness. 

Thou who knowest what love is teach me to 
know it too; Thou who lovest with under- 
standing and without shadow of turning, O 
make me Thine, indeed. Through Jesus 
Christ, our Lord. Amen. 



'Because I live, ye shall live also." 

St. John XIV, 19. 



THE USE OF RELIGION 97 



ETERNAL LIFE 

"This is life eternal, that they might know 
Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom 
Thou hast sent." St. John xvn, 3. 

(Read Luke XXIV; I Corinthians XV) 

IMMORTALITY alone makes life in- 
telligible and livable. Life everlasting is 
the answering reality to the need and 
longing of every normal human being. Though 
the truth must ever fall short of intellectual 
demonstration, the fact that we can and do 
think in terms of the eternal and that it is the 
object of our desire is enough evidence for our 
requirements. 

And what the character of that eternal 
life is we do not know; chiefly for the reason 
that anything which would be satisfying to 
us in our present state would prove inadequate 
in the state of purely psychic activities and 
relationships. Sufficient is it to know that 
life eternal will bring us unto a perfect knowl- 
edge of the "only true God and of Jesus 
Christ whom He has sent." 

To know God is life eternal. 

That is not only the purpose of life eternal, 
it is life eternal. So as we seek to know God, 
and grow daily in communion with Him we 
bring eternity into time. For those who are 
in touch with the Infinite the question of 



98 THE USE OF RELIGION 



immortality never arises. The eternal nature 
of the human soul is assumed as natural and 
inevitable; for to question our immortality is 
to question God's being and to thwart the 
very end of our communion with Him. It is 
unthinkable that the blessed privilege of rela- 
tionship with Him is offered us with nothing 
but obliteration as the aim and end. 

We make eternal truths real for ourselves 
by association with them and by affirmative 
attitude toward them. 

God's blessing, Christ's saviourship, the 
Holy Spirit's power, Eternal life, are true or 
not, for us individually, just as we make them. 
An attitude of indifference or negation will 
bar us from all knowledge of God, — and to 
know God is life eternal. 



So we practice the presence of God, we 
practice eternal life, we make it real to us, we 
bring it into the present, we cultivate the 
spiritual, we enlarge our souls. Then, when 
comes the time for the change of our life ex- 
pression, the transition will be easy and 
natural, free from abruptness and shock, with- 
out fear and with all peace and joy. 

Now, after having followed the directions 
given under relaxation and concentration, 

Contemplate 



THE USE OF RELIGION 99 

The empty tomb of Jesus, on the Resur- 
rection morning. Think of the tomb as the 
gate to life eternal not as a sealed enclosure 
embracing us in perpetual gloom. 

Then go in thought and spirit to the Ascen- 
sion Mount. Gather with the chosen for 
Jesus' parting words and let your inward sight 
behold Him as He is recieved up into Heaven. 
Know that the resurrection and ascension of 
Christ are not a mockery or our own limitations, 
but an earnest of the promise that where He is, 
there we shall be also. 

Affirm 

I am immortal. 

Death has no more dominion over me. 

I contemplate the end of my earthly life 
with serenity. With peace and joy do I look 
forward to the hour when the love of God 
shall embrace and keep me in its never failing, 
all sufficient strength and I shall enter the 
fuller life of greater thought and love and 
service. 



O Thou God of our immortal souls, suffer us 
not through sin and neglect to live apart from 
Thee. Enlighten us with the knowledge of 
Thy being, strengthen us with Thy presence, 
enlarge and refine our spirits with the thought 
of our eternal life, that we may here and 
now prepare ourselves for greater love and 
service in the greater life to be. 

So that at last when the time of our going 
cometh, we may be no strangers to the 
thought and may give ourselves, our souls and 
bodies, into Thy tender, unwasteful care and 
keeping for such use and service as Thy wis- 
dom may find best. All which we ask for His 
sake Who died for us, Who rose again for us, 
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 



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